Chairman and Managing Director of the Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) N. Balaram has said that the Odisha government has assured to take up the enumeration of trees in the 643 hectares of reserve forest and 140 hectares of village forest land within 10 days.
In a statement, Mr. Balaram said on Thursday that work pertaining to the Naini coal block was going on a fast-track since the recent visit of Deputy Chief Minister M. Bhatti Vikramarka when he called on the Odisha Chief Minister as also the senior officials, including the Chief Secretary, with a request to speeding up completion of the formalities with regard to handing over of forest land, counting of trees, electricity supply, road and others so that Singareni could take up mining activity at the earliest.
Mr. Balaram thanked the Odisha government for assuring to take up tree enumeration work as also their removal. Chief Secretary to the Odisha Government Manoj Ahuja responded positively to the request from Singareni.
The Singareni CMD participated in a meeting held at Bhubaneswar on the status of new coal blocks on Wednesday. The meeting was chaired by Coal Secretary Amrit Lal Meena and was attended by the Chief Secretary of Odisha as also the senior officials of the coal, steel and forest departments of the Odisha Government, the CMDs of Coal India, Mahanadi Coalfields and Neyveli Lignite Corporation.
Later, the CMDs and other officials led by the Union Coal Secretary called on Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and briefed him about the meeting. In response, Mr. Majhi assured all cooperation from the State government in commencement of mining operations in all new coal blocks allotted. Mr. Balaram later called on Chhendipada Constituency MLA Agasti Behera in which the Naini coal block is spread and sought his cooperation.
Published - August 09, 2024 02:42 am IST
